The past week has been pretty crazy, with a lot of feelings.1 | Most significantly, I grew up with two yorkshire terriers. We got Molly when I was 8 and Jazzy when I was 9. I don't remember not having a dog. On Friday, we put Molly down, and it was the saddest my heart has ever been.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the truth is that a lot of the time, our parents are right. They're older and wiser and we learn a lot from them, even if we don't realize it at the time.

My parents, obviously, have played a role in shaping who I am, and I don't view that as a bad thing. There have been plenty of instances where something I've learned from my parents has come in to play and I think how grateful I am to have been taught that.

From goofy to practical, here are some (certainly, only some) of those things.

For those of you who don't know, my full-time job during the week is an "office job." I'm a project coordinator at a creative studio. It's a classic 8-to-5, clock-in-and-clock-out, working-in-a-cubicle job.

1 | One of my neighbors in my building sometimes plays piano in the evening, and it's such a lovely, soothing thing to listen to. We hadn't heard him play in a while until one night last week, when my boyfriend suddenly said, "Do you hear that?" and we paused whatever we were watching to listen to the music.

Every once in a while I like to go the beauty-blogger route and talk about products I've been using lately. When I find something I like, I'll use it regularly until I'm sick of it. I don't know a ton about makeup, either, so if I can make it work, so can you.

Here are some of the beauty products I've using pretty much every day lately:

1 | On Thursday I went to my kettlebell class at my gym for the first time since June. It's my favorite class, and I pretty much go every week, except for during the summer when I go to a local food fest with my family on Thursdays.

It was nice to be back. I set up in my usual spot because even after not going for three months, it was still my spot. Two different people came up to me and said, "Haven't seen you for a while! Welcome back." I like the idea of people I don't know noticing my existence like that.

Last night I saw the highly anticipated movie "It," based on Stephen King's 1986 novel and my initial reaction was disappointment. It wasn't a bad movie. I'm sure in a few days when I reflect back on it, I'll probably agree that it's good. But walking out of the theatre, all I felt was that it didn't meet my expectations.

It's worth mentioning that I haven't read Stephen King's "It," nor have I seen the original movie. So it's possible that the aspects I didn't like are specific to this execution rather than the original story.

Nonetheless, here are four spoiler-free things I didn't like about the new movie.

1 | Every day on my way to work, I pass the same little old lady walking down the street. We usually end up at the street corner at the same time. I'm at a red light waiting to turn right and she's crossing the street in front of me. This happens literally every day. I've come to expect it. As I pull up at the light, I realize I'm already scanning the sidewalk looking for her.

It's weird how precise the timing is – not only am I passing her every day but it's in the exact same spot. I wonder if she notices that the same car is always at the light with her.

My first post this month was about how diet and exercise don't have a rule book. It's something that's on my mind so often that I'm surprised I haven't written about it before. I also wrote about common misconceptions about yoga, because too often somebody's reason for not doing yoga even though they want to isn't accurate anyway. Sunday mornings have become my time to talk about three things from that week. I stepped a little out of my blogging comfort zone and wrote about how it's time to speak up. Lastly, I read a few really unique books this month.

Plot: There's something weird about the river that runs through town. Women have gone missing and turned up dead in the water. Most recently, it was Nel Abbott, a single mother. Her sister, Jules, takes in Nel's fifteen-year-old daughter, Lena, who is devastated, convinced Nel's death was a suicide. Jules isn't convinced. Together, the two of them have to try to put the pieces together and find out what really happened to Nel.

1 | Last Monday my family and I saw the total solar eclipse in southern Illinois. It was awesome. We watched it from a grassy area with a gazebo and a decent crowd of people. Everyone was gathered around together, sitting on the steps or in lawn chairs, or sprawled out on blankets in the grass.

I've been practicing yoga for about six years, and I've found that it has certain connotations that aren't necessarily true. I've had a handful of conversations with friends where they say, "I really want to do yoga, but..." followed by a statement that's either incorrect or not important anyway.

Yoga is great for a lot of reasons. Most simply, it's a block of time that you are setting aside to focus on yourself, inside and out, stretching out your muscles and getting a little peace of mind. Still, some people just aren't into it, so I'm not here to persuade you to do yoga if you don't want to. Instead, I'm talking to those of you who want to get into it but haven't because...

1 | I get discouraged sometimes about my numbers online – blog post pageviews, Instagram followers, Twitter followers. They're all too low considering the number of posts, considering how long each account has been around.

I said something about this on my Instagram story and received a comforting message from Afoma in response: "Slow growth means deep roots. Trust me. You're connecting with people and that's what matters." Who knows if that's actually true, but I like to think it is.

Generally, my blog content and the news do not cross paths. A few of my monthly wrap-ups may have included links to articles or posts related to current events, but the primary focus has never been discussing what is going on the world. And boy is there a lot going on.

I've gone back and forth many times about whether to post on here about Trump. I usually turn to Twitter for that. I like that my blog is lighthearted. I like that it's a place to escape from the dumb shit in the world. At the same time, I also feel a moral obligation to speak up. I don't want to shy away from writing about topics with more substance when they need to be written about. As somebody with an outlet not only to write but to really speak, it's important for me to do so.

I've decided to try out this series, which I've seen done by Rachel Del. Every Sunday, she posts a short list of three things from the past week – thoughts she had, events she went to, anything. I read them every week. It's a nice peek into her mind. I enjoy the posts as a reader, and so I thought, hey, I think I might enjoy those as a writer too. They'll keep me thinking, keep me writing, keep the wheels turning.

I don't want these posts to feel repetitive with my monthly wrap-ups. The way I see it, the wrap-ups are more of a place where I share my interests and more significant life updates. These posts will be the little things in between, a space where I can think aloud. I can record a thought I had without turning it into a full post. Sometimes a thought is just an inkling, worth mentioning but nothing to expand on.

Take everything you've been told about diet and exercise, and forget it.

Just kidding.
Sort of.
More like, take everything you've been told and remember that those are not set-in-stone rules. Because if there's anything that doesn't have a rule book, it's diet and exercise.

Plot: Set in 1969, "The Girls" tells the story of Evie Boyd, a lonely and curious teenager. One day while at the park, Evie sees a group of girls for whom she immediately feels a sense of admiration and envy. They're different, carefree, wild. Evie is drawn into their friend circle, which she soon discovers is actually a cult. As the summer progresses, Evie spends more and more time in this new world, oblivious to the dangers and violence to come.

Of all the social media outlets, Instagram might be my favorite. I like documenting my day with a single photo, and I like seeing how others capture theirs. It's a virtual scrapbook where we can express ourselves visually or in writing, or both.

I'm not gonna pretend I don't edit my Instagram pictures. I do. We all probably do, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I don't think adjusting a picture so it's more clean, vibrant, or eye-catching is dishonest.

I decided to start the "Finding Your Spark" series to shine a light on different types of people who are following various paths – their OWN paths, whatever those may be. The whole idea is that there's no single way to live life and a person doesn't have to be "famous" to inspire others. These individuals have found what inspires them, motivates them, makes them happy. And they've run with it. Read all posts in this series here.

I've heard that the five people you spend the most time with influence you the most. I've seen it on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, worded different ways and attributed to a few different people, but the idea is always the same: We become similar to the people we spend a lot of time with. And it's true. We start to pick up some of their habits or quirks, use the same expressions, absorb their energies, whether we realize we're doing it or not. We can't help it. It's natural.

Because of this, it's important that we're careful about who we surround ourselves with. It's important that our friends are good, driven people with big hearts and a sense of humor, so we can be good, driven people with big hearts and a sense of humor.

We know this.

I think what we forget is that the people we follow on social media are "people we surround ourselves with" too.

During the two years I've had this blog, I've also had a full-time job. It can definitely be hard to find the time or energy (or inspiration) to write. Most days I'm spending 9+ hours at work and then hitting the gym. By the time I get home, I'm too drained, and I probably don't want to look at a computer anymore anyway.

Still – I enjoy writing and blogging, so I haven't let it stop me. Some weeks are better than others, but I've kept my blog alive and well for two years. Here are a few ways how:

We want other people to feel good. We highlight their achievements and express our admiration, but rarely do we give this sort of kindness to ourselves. We are much quicker to tear ourselves down rather than build ourselves up. (And we should be gentle, kind, and fair to ourselves, remember?)

In her post, Fern listed out a handful of things she likes about herself. It was heart-warming to read. Genuine love for oneself is precious. So today I'm going to follow her lead. It was awkward and honestly pretty difficult to focus on my good things, but I did it. I nailed down a solid five. And I encourage you to take some time to do the same.

Plot: Penny lives her life according to the plan that's been set for her: graduate college, work at her dad's marketing firm, and eventually marry and start a family with her current boyfriend, Matt. When her parents announce that they are getting divorced, Penny's devastated and decides to take control of her life. Questioning her relationship and neglecting her friendships, she becomes determined to shed the person she was and be someone else.

This morning I sat down and started to write about active steps I've been taking lately to make myself happier, and then I thought, hey, I have the apartment to myself and I'm struggling to write down what I'm thinking, so why not try to talk this one out in a video? So that's what I did. You can watch that video HERE or below.

I'm not good at writing smooth intros to posts, and this one is proving to be even more difficult because I'm digging up a draft from six months ago, so I'll just get right to the point: This post is about friendship. I've written about this a few times before.

This post is about friendships and how sometimes they can be tricky. One argument, one disagreement, one conflict can feel more substantial than it is. But I don't really worry about cutting ties or burning bridges anymore. One bad thing doesn't mean a bad friendship. It's not that black and white.

"Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change."Jim Rohn

I'm reformatting the way my monthly wrap-ups are structured again because (1) I think broader categories will be better, and (2) it's the kind of change that makes me feel creatively motivated. LET'S GO.

Plot: Bernadette doesn't exactly fit in. Her home has weeds growing through the floorboards, she avoids the other school moms, and she is so agoraphobic that most of her errands are run by a virtual assistant in India. This becomes particularly problematic when the time comes for her to go with her family to Antarctica, a trip she promised her daughter, Bee. Instead, Bernadette suddenly goes missing. By compiling emails, letters, and other various documents, Bee sets out to find her mother.

I believe that nobody's perfect and I believe that there's always room for improvement. I believe in growth and striving to be the best person you can be. So I am always working on bettering myself.

But there are days when that notion strikes a different chord. Instead of feeling inspired or motivated, I feel discouraged, frustrated, and embarrassed. There's always room for improvement... so I'll never be quite good enough?

I decided to start the "Finding Your Spark" series to shine a light on different types of people who are following various paths – their OWN paths, whatever those may be. The whole idea is that there's no single way to live life and a person doesn't have to be "famous" to inspire others. These individuals have found what inspires them, motivates them, makes them happy. And they've run with it. Read all posts in this series here.

Plot: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter lives in two different worlds, living in a poor neighborhood while attending an upscale prep school. These two worlds collide when Starr witnesses her best friend Khalil get fatally shot by police, even though he was unarmed. Headlines call him a thug, a drug dealer, a gangbanger. But the only person who knows what really happened that night is Starr.

I'm moving in two weeks, which I'm very excited about. At the same time, I'm really gonna miss this place. It was my first apartment, a year and a half living on my own. I've had a lot of great memories in the area too.

Plot: Zoe Walker takes the same route to work every day, going to the same train station and the same platform, sitting in the same seat. One day, she sees a picture of herself in the classified ads, along with a phone number and a website, FindTheOne.com. The next day, it's a different woman's photo. And a different one after that. Each day, it's a different woman, and Zoe realizes that it might not be a coincidence, because they've all become victims of increasingly violent crimes. Has someone been watching Zoe? Could she be the next target?

Blogging takes more work than some people realize. Whether you're running a blog in addition to a full-time job like I am, or your blog is your full-time job, it requires a good amount of time and effort. Coming up with ideas, writing them out, planning, scheduling, taking (relevant) pictures, promoting each post so it can actually reach an audience.

While I don't believe there's any "right" or "wrong" way to blog, I did want to give a little peek behind the scenes on how an ordinary girl who works full-time also manages to regularly blog, along with a few tips.

Now that I sit down and think about, February was a great month. Work wasn't stressful or overwhelming, I stayed on top of my to-do list, and my blog posts were finished in time to be scheduled out a couple of days in advance. It was calm.

February was also the start of two good things. One: I've started a new position at my work. I'll be in training over the next couple of weeks and am really looking forward to the change. Two: My boyfriend and I have officially started looking at apartments.

Two couples, one dinner. Two children, one crime. When Paul and Claire meet Serge and Babette for dinner, they don't know where the conversation will go. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son, and together, the boys have committed a heinous act, caught on camera. Despite a police manhunt, the boys have been identified only by their parents. Over the duration of one five-course meal, the conversation goes from polite to strategic, and the couples must decide how far they would go to protect the ones they love.

I had Lauren Graham's book "Talking As Fast As I Can" (her second book, first non-fiction) on hold at the library since it came out at the end of November. Three months later, I finally got an alert that it was available. Then I read it in three days.

I enjoy reading memoirs and hearing people's nuggets of wisdom and words of advice. As usual, I kept my phone close so I could jot down quotes that stuck out to me. There are six in particular that I want to share.